US-style commentary on England vs Paraguay World Cup match: "Everyone's talking about Mike Beckham, but is he one of the best players?"

Ailments:

Mossie bites now infected and oozing

Date:

10 June 2006

Current crisis:

Still no character, still no nearer

Current silver lining:

Found mossie relief cream. In my pocket.

Spot the difference: Franny and Lizzie attempt to look like real journalists for an important interview

Was so damn hot last night, I cracked at 3am and got up to turn the AC on. (Have avoided it so far for the sake of carbon dioxide and speedy acclimatisation.) In my blindness, I accidentally turned it to heat instead and we woke in a sauna.

Which added to the feeling of stagnating impasse.

Entertained ourselves by sending before and after photos of our makeover to our pals, along with voting slips. "Before" won unanimously, except for Granny's veto. Think she always dreamt of a smart granddaughter.

All gone a bit quiet from Israel these days. Hope The Boy has not met someone closer.

Charles The B&B Owner amused us the with the news that Bill Clinton and George Bush Snr had dinner in his restaurant recently - with Ellen DeGeneres and her girlfriend.

Bored discussion of bizarre skills needed to be doc makers. Lizzie reckons her weirdest is having to be a stranger's instant best friend one minute and then blanking them the next. She's always called on to baby-sit people - especially children - while I'm planning with their parents. Then, if we need them in a scene, she has to ignore them so they don't try to interact with her. I dread to think how many young children have had their social skills permanently damaged.

My most bizarre skill is similar, I guess. Being able to change character and personality as the situation demands. Long Term once came to India when I was filming Drowned Out and helped me out by asking questions for an interview. But he was so dismayed at the childish nature of my questions - carefully constructed to allow the interviewee to speak clearly and simply - and couldn't bear to be thought of as anything other than the deeply intelligent person he is, that he ended up abandoning my questions and getting into a debate instead. Cutting in when the interviewee spoke and everything. Useless for the film, good for his ego. Luckily I don't mind if people think I'm stupid. (As we fought about it later, he said, "Not everyone was born with a microphone in their hand", which was a damn good line, I was first to admit.)

Have been taking the opportunity to read endless back newspapers online. Interesting interview with Mike Skinner aka The Streets. His theory is that, at least for music production, there are two axis: skill and creativity. Skills go up and up with experience till older age starts kicking in. Creativity peaks at some point in mid-twenties. So there's a very small window when the two overlap and you're working to your full capacity.

I think the same is true of making docs. You need ten years' experience and skills - not to mention track record to raise the cash - but still need enough energy and not enough commitments (kids, mortgage, demanding partner) to pull it off. All of which only further convinces me that Crude is my big chance. Eek. What am I doing sitting here naval gazing making no progress whatsoever? Shouldn't I at least be working on the script?? How will it ever get finished with this lazy attitude??

Shall we go out for dinner Lizzie? Friendly Mexican down the road? Couple of beers and more hurricane tales with the manager?